Welcome to the biotech age

Now the human genome has been mapped, we are at the dawn of a brave new biotech age. But can the private sector now get involved please?

With the news of the successful mapping of the human genome, we can truly say that we have entered the biotech age. But what is biotech Biotechnology is the development and manipulation of genetic material to produce improved products such as insect resistant crops or synthetic blood. It has applications in industry, medicine and agriculture.

Over the last ten years, the biotech industry has almost entirely been funded by the public sector û charities, governments and universities. In contrast,...